Political exaggeration.

With some confusion regarding whether the general election will start on 16 April (ET) an interim budget was revealed in parliament yesterday which "will take care of the financial needs of the intervening period until a government is formed after the Lok Sabha polls" (ET). It is natural therefore that the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman praised the achievements of the government over the last 10 years. "Average income of people has increased by 50%." Perhaps not in rural India, home to 60% of the population. "Reuters interviewed nearly 50 families...in three Indian states - Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal - and 85% of them reported stagnant or lower incomes compared to the years before the pandemic. They said inflation was high and was forcing them to borrow money to sustain already reduced consumption." According to a report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), released on 12 December, "74.1% of Indians were unable to afford a healthy diet in 2021. In 2022, the percentage was 76.2." TH. "If food costs rise at the same time incomes fall, a compounding effect occurs that can result in even more people unable to afford healthy diets," the report said. "Female enrollment in higher education has gone up by 28% in 10 years." Must be a from a small number of elite families because, "Nearly 43% of children in the 14-18 age group in rural areas cannot read sentences in English, while 25% struggle to read Class 2 level text in their respective regional language, show the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2023. More than half the children struggle with even simple division, something they are expected to have mastered in Class 3 or 4." Higher education should lead to good jobs. "Need a commitment from you...you cannot get pregnant in the next 2-3 years," the HR head of one of the country's largest asset management companies told a 34-year-old female jobseeker in an interview recently. "Think about it...Once you have made up your mind, come back to us." ET. "Tight job market, shrinking team sizes, more people chasing fewer jobs exacerbating bias and stereotyping of women." Stereotyping means "an unfair and untrue belief that many people have" (Britannica). It is definitely true that only women can get pregnant so such discrimination is unfair but it is not stereotyping. "One in five girls and about one in six boys in India are married, with the progress made towards eliminating the practice of child marriage entirely stagnating in recent years, according to study published in 'The Lancet Global Health' journal." TOI. While there is no doubt that this government has launched an enormous number of welfare schemes (Jagran Josh), which is an easy way to buy votes with taxpayer money, the claims made by the minster are surely political exaggeration. If not 'terminological inexactitude' (wikipedia).